I recently finished reading Deeper by Jane Thomson. This is the story of a mermaid (they’re called mers) that wants to be human, so it’s a retelling of ‘The Little Mermaid’. That’s where the similarities end.

There is an odd brutality to the book, which isn’t shocking or grotesque. It comes off surprisingly casual and part of the world. Mer society does come off as survival of the fittest and primal at times with the characters biting and attacking each other. I didn’t feel like I was reading about a human world under the water. Through detail and character actions, I felt like the Mer had a rich, deep world that was entirely different from the world I’m used to. One can tell that Jane Thomson put a lot of time and effort into crafting their world.